The invention relates to a supervisory communication system serving callers with restricted freedom, connected to a local telephone exchange and to a local computer network that comprises a data base storing relevant data concerning each possible caller.
With the development of human rights the possibilities of subjects under arrest has increased, and this includes a limited freedom to initiate telephone calls towards the outside word. Persons under arrest or detention can be divided into several categories, and it is not the objective of the present invention to define such categories but to provide a calling service to all possible callers to whom the initiation of a call is permitted. For the sake of simplicity in the following the term: “prisoner” or “caller” will be used to define subjects who are under arrest and spend their time in a prison or jail. Also, the term “prison” designated all possible institutes or campus wherein such prisoners are spending their time.
Prisoners are identified by their name and by the personal identification data, which is generally a coded number under which they are registered. Each prisoner has a specific record, which includes what restrictions are applied to them. These restrictions include the more or less limited movement in the different parts of the prison, the persons whom they can call (and their dial numbers), the time slots when initiation of a call is allowed and the time during which they have to finish a call, etc. A further restriction may include a need of a permanent inspection of each outgoing call so that the conversation cannot touch certain topics. Generally, only a small fraction of all prisoners have such a limitation, the others can carry out their calls with a higher degree of freedom.
In modern prisons the prisoners work and earn money, and they can spend the money available on their account for shopping and for covering the costs of telephone calls initiated by them.
As all state-of-the-art offices, prisons are also provided with a local telephone network served by a local exchange, and for the official staff a local computer network is available connected often to the internet.
Personal rights of the prisoners must be honored, therefore it is not allowed that the prison personnel can record the calls initiated by the prisoners, however, certain precautions should be exercised to prevent the caller from dialing numbers according to their wish and to have correspondence without any record.
The object of the present invention is to provide a supervisory communication system serving callers with restricted freedom, wherein only the minimum of required control takes place, which utilizes the available time of the inspecting personnel with the highest efficiency, wherein no subjective distinctions are made between prisoners other than defined in the sentence, and which can be installed easily at each prison.